Mike Halac, a professional wrestler known for his time in WWE during the 1990s, has died. He was 55 years old. Halac’s daughter confirmed his death on his personal Facebook page, saying that “He went peacefully in his sleep. He’s no longer in pain,” per TMZ Sports.
“This really hit home to lose my father, he will forever be in my heart and many others,” Halac’s daughter said. “I love you dad. Make the skies beautiful for me.” Halac first appeared in WWE in 1994 and debuted the gimmick Mantaur in December of that year. His character was similar to a Minotaur who would charge, trample and moo at opponents. In 1995, Halac competed in the Royal Rumble match and lasted nine minutes. He was in WWE until July 1995 when he appeared in a lumberjack match between Sycho Sid and Diesel at In Your House 2.
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Halac would then spend time in ECW and Catch Wrestling Association before returning to WWE to be the bodyguard of Goldust at In Your House 7 in 1996. He would then compete in the United States Wrestling Association and WCW for just one natch. Halac would then spend time with Catch Wrestling Association and the independent circuit with his last appearance being in 2019. Along with Manataur, Halac would wrestle under the names Bruiser Mastino and Tank.
While appearing on the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast last month, Halac talked about the Mantaur gimmick. “I really love that character,” he said, per ProWrestling.net. “And you know, this was before Mr. Hughes, and so I would’ve been the first Mr. Hughes, but they, you know, they wanted to do this Half Man, Half Beast. They were in that gimmick mode at that timeframe, right? And so they were trying to create fun, I don’t know, characters… One day after I wore the f—ing bullhead for five or six times, I showed up to television and they says, well, we wanna change up the gimmick. I was like, well, f— it. Thank God for that, man.
“You know, I’m tired of wearing that f—ing Bullhead. And so then we want to cut your hair into horns and put makeup on your face. And I was like, okay. So, uh, Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler got his clippers out, we went in the locker room, he shaved the f—ing horns on, and then it took me, probably about two weeks to reshape ’em to where they were absolutely perfect, cuz I’m totally anal about s— like that.”
